Direct laser writing for merging 2D and 3D metrological calibration tasks

Material measures, crucial for calibrating measuring instruments in metrology, face limitations due to their standardized categorization as being either profile kind or areal kind. To ensure comparability and uncertainty estimation across different measuring instruments, we explore to adapt these material measures (reflective micro-optics) for multiple types of instruments using additive manufacturing on the microscale - namely direct laser writing. This flexible technology allows to extend profiled material measures to be usable for areal surface topography instruments and vice versa. The thus revised micro-structures are designed, manufactured, and measured to practically demonstrate the possibilities for a multifunctional calibration of different measuring instrument categories, as well as to illustrate the effect of directionality on the results. Moreover, fortunately, 3D µ-printing enables the fabrication of all structures on a single sample, reducing costs and time for the calibration tasks in research and industry.